Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday closed off chances that the Senate would pass anytime soon a House bill that would give most Americans $2,000 stimulus payments.
The Kentucky Republican said the House legislation, approved in a bipartisan vote Monday, “has no realistic path” to quick passage in the Senate and that it falls short of the demands of President Donald Trump. He again blocked an attempt by Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to adopt the House bill to increase the payments to $2,000 from the $600 by unanimous consent.
William Holder serves as dean of the USC Leventhal School of Accounting, and holds the Alan Casden Dean’s Chair of Accountancy. Prior to his current post, he was the Ernst & Young Professor of Accounting and director of the SEC and Financial Reporting Institute in the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. Dean Holder has published extensively on the subjects of financial accounting and reporting and auditing. He has received numerous awards during his career, including being twice named as one of the “Top 100 People” in the accounting profession and receiving the AICPA Gold Medal for Distinguished Service, the highest honor awarded by that organization. He has served on a number of governance and standard setting authorities including the Accounting Standards Executive Committee of the AICPA and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board. During congressional hearings leading to passage of the Sarbanes/Oxley Act, he provided invited testimony about financial reporting, auditing and corporate governance.
Udi Hoitash is an accounting professor at Northeastern University in Boston.
Jen Farrell is director of agent and customer research at Liberty Mutual and Safeco Insurance, supporting independent agent distribution and product development. In her role, she conducts primary research and interprets industry trends to ensure Liberty Mutual and Safeco take a data-driven approach to the agent and customer experience. Jen brings nearly 15 years of experience in research and digital analytics, previously working with some of the world’s largest brands to uncover marketing insights and answer critical business questions. When she’s not studying consumers, independent agents, or the insurance industry, she can be found hiking through the woods in New England.
The Senate instead will work on combining the stimulus payments with measures on election integrity and rolling back social media liability protections, he said. That responds to all three issues Trump has said he wants, but a bill combining them likely will alienate enough senators in both parties to leave prospects for bigger stimulus payments dead in the Senate.
“The Senate is not going to be bullied into rushing out more borrowed money into the hands of the Democrats’ rich friends who don’t need the help,” McConnell said. The House bill would raise the income cutoff to receive a payment.
The clash over the payments also is entangling another piece of year-end business in the Senate — a vote to override Trump’s veto of a crucial $740.5 billion defense policy bill. Senators Bernie Sanders and Ed Markey said they will continue to delay the defense legislation vote unless McConnell relents and allows a vote on a standalone bill on the bigger stimulus checks.
“We are saying to Mitch McConnell, to allow the United States Senate to do what it’s supposed to do, and that is the vote,” Sanders told reporters. “The House passed the bill, it’s over here right now. Do you want to vote against it? Then vote against it.”
Pennsylvania Republican Senator Pat Toomey later blocked an attempt by Sanders to call up the House bill for a roll call vote.